Federation of the Greens
Encyclopedia
The Federation of the Greens is a green
Green politics
Green politics is a political ideology that aims for the creation of an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, social liberalism, and grassroots democracy...

 political party in Italy, which includes also a large eco-socialist
Eco-socialism
Eco-socialism, green socialism or socialist ecology is an ideology merging aspects of Marxism, socialism, green politics, ecology and alter-globalization...

 faction. Since 2009 the party leader is Angelo Bonelli.

Early years

The first official Italian Green symbol and political style was directly inspired by the Northern European environmentalist movements. The Green Lists
Green Lists
The Green Lists was an green Italian political party.It was founded in 1986 and merged in 1991 with the Rainbow Greens to form the Federation of the Greens....

, led by Gianni Mattioli and Alexander Langer
Alexander Langer
Alexander Langer was a journalist, peace activist, politician, translator, and teacher.Born on February 22, 1946 in Sterzing, South Tyrol, a province of Italy inhabited by a German-speaking population, he became involved early on in local political issues, which at the time centered on the...

, made their debut at the 1987 general election
Italian general election, 1987
The Italian election of 1987 was held on June 14. Italian citizens chose the tenth Parliament of the Italian Republic.This election marked the final inversion of the trend of the entire republican history of Italy: for the first time, the distance between the Christian Democrats and the Communists...

, when they gained 2.6% of the national vote.

At the 1989 European Parliament election
European Parliament election, 1989
The 1989 European Parliamentary Election was a European election held across the 12 European Community member states in June 1989. It was third European election but the first time that Spain and Portugal voted at the same time as the other members...

 there were two competing Green parties: the Green Lists and the Rainbow Greens
Rainbow Greens
Rainbow Greens was a green Italian political party.It was founded in 1989 by splinters of Proletarian Democracy and some leading Radicals .It took part in the 1989 European Parliament elections,...

, formed mainly by Radicals, including Adele Faccio
Adele Faccio
Adele Faccio was an Italian politician and deputy of the Radical Party .-Abortion activism:...

, Adelaide Aglietta
Adelaide Aglietta
Born Maria Adelaide Aglietta Turin 4 June 1940 - 20 May 2000 . She was an Italian politician, deputy for Radical party since 1979 to 1985 and 1987 to 1989...

, Marco Taradash and Francesco Rutelli. In 1990 the two parties joined forces to form the Federation of Greens.

Government participation

The new party entered in alliance with the Democratic Party of the Left
Democratic Party of the Left
The Democratic Party of the Left was a post-communist, democratic socialist political party in Italy.-History:...

 in 1993 (within the Alliance of Progressives
Alliance of Progressives
The Alliance of Progressives was a left-wing electoral coalition in Italy in 1994.It was composed of:*the Democratic Party of the Left ;*the Communist Refoundation Party ;...

) and was a founding component of The Olive Tree coalition in 1995. Following the 1996 general election
Italian general election, 1996
An early national general election was held in Italy on 21 April, 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic...

, the Greens were part of the centre-left governments led by Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...

, Massimo D'Alema
Massimo D'Alema
Massimo D'Alema is an Italian politician. He is also a journalist and a former national secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left...

 and Giuliano Amato
Giuliano Amato
Giuliano Amato is an Italian politician. He was Prime Minister of Italy twice, first from 1992 to 1993 and then from 2000 to 2001. He was more recently Vice President of the Convention on the Future of Europe that drafted the new European Constitution and headed the Amato Group. He is commonly...

. Edo Ronchi was minister for the Environment from 1996 to 2000 and Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio , is an Italian politician. He served as Minister of Environment in the second cabinet of Romano Prodi between 2006 and 2008....

 Minister of Agriculture from 2000 to 2001

In the 2001 general election
Italian general election, 2001
A national general election was held in Italy on May 13, 2001 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The 14th Parliament of the Italian republic was chosen....

 the Greens formed a joint list with the Italian Democratic Socialists
Italian Democratic Socialists
The Italian Democratic Socialists were a small social-democratic political party in Italy. Led by Enrico Boselli, the party was the direct continuation of the Italian Socialists, the legal successor of the historical Italian Socialist Party...

: The Sunflower
The Sunflower
The Sunflower was an electoral alliance of two Italian centre-left parties for the 2001 Italian general election, namely:* Federation of the Greens * Italian Democratic Socialists...

 (Il Girasole). The combination scored 2.2%, thus failing to surpass the 4% threshold. The Greens elected 7 deputies and 10 senators in single-member constituencies, as part of The Olive Tree coalition.

Shift to the far left

After the end of the alliance with the Socialists, a much moderate outfit, the party shifted far to the left, prompting the exit of leading members as Edo Ronchi, Gianni Mattioli, Luigi Manconi, Massimo Scalia and Franco Corleone (Francesco Rutelli and Carlo Ripa di Meana had abandoned the party before, respectively in 1997 and in 1999). Since that point the Greens considered themselves as part of the Italian "radical left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...

", alongside with the Party of Italian Communists
Party of Italian Communists
The Party of Italian Communists is a communist political party in Italy. Its long-time leader is Oliviero Diliberto.-Foundation and early years:...

 and the Communist Refoundation Party
Communist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party is a communist Italian political party. Its current secretary is Paolo Ferrero....

.

In the 2004 European Parliamentary Election
European Parliament election, 2004 (Italy)
Elections to the European Parliament were held in Italy on 12 and 13 June 2004. Italy's highly fragmented party system made it hard to identify an overall trend, but the results were generally seen as a defeat for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a victory for the centre-left opposition...

 the Greens stood as a separate list, gaining 2.5% of the national vote and electing 2 MEPs
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...

. In the 2006 general election
Italian general election, 2006
In the Italian general election, 2006 for the renewal of the two Chambers of the Parliament of Italy held on April 9 and April 10, 2006 the incumbent prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right House of Freedoms, was narrowly defeated by Romano Prodi, leader of the center-left The...

, the party was part of the winning The Union
The Union (political coalition)
The Union was an centre-left coalition of political parties in Italy. It was led by Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy from April 2006 to April 2008, and former President of the European Commission.-Parties:...

 and scored 2.1%, winning 15 out of 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...

. An alliance of Greens, Communists
Party of Italian Communists
The Party of Italian Communists is a communist political party in Italy. Its long-time leader is Oliviero Diliberto.-Foundation and early years:...

 and Consumers
United Consumers
The United Consumers is a political party in Italy led by Bruno De Vita.Since the 2006 general election the party was affiliated to The Union, the centre-left coalition led by Romano Prodi, and in that occasion it took part to a joint list with the Federation of the Greens and the Party of Italian...

 scored 4.2% in the election for the Senate
Italian Senate
The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...

, electing 11 out of 315 senators, 5 of them Greens. Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio , is an Italian politician. He served as Minister of Environment in the second cabinet of Romano Prodi between 2006 and 2008....

 was inaugurated Minister of the Environment, while Paolo Cento, national coordinator of the party and leader of the no global faction within it, became Under-Secretary for Economy and Finance.

On the 10-12 November 2006 party congress, the party reinforced the political line traced by Pecoraro Scanio. The Greens decided anyway to re-open the doors to former members, such as Mattioli and Scalia, and set the 5-6% mid-term goal. The attempt of re-uniting the Italian Greens failed as soon as in January 2007, when Gianni Mattioli, Massimo Scalia and Franco Corleone finally left the party, citing that it was drifting too much the far left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...

, and announced their intention to participate to the foundation of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Italy)
The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election....

.

In this way they reinforced the green faction within the Democratic Party, named Democratic Ecologists
Democratic Ecologists
The Democratic Ecologists are a green faction within the Italian Democratic Party .Its leaders are Ermete Realacci and Fabrizio Vigni and its composed by both former members of the Democrats of the Left and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy The Democratic Ecologists (Ecologisti Democratici,...

, alongside with Luigi Manconi, Edo Ronchi, Lino De Benetti and Stefano Semenzato (members of the Democrats of the Left
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...

) and Ermete Realacci, Gianni Vernetti
Gianni Vernetti
-Early life:Vernetti was born in Torino, Italy. In 1985 he obtained a degree in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Torino. In 1987 he was awarded a PhD in Urban Ecology from the Politecnico di Milano university.-Career:...

, Franco Piro, Francesco Ferrante and Carla Rocchi (former Greens switched to Democracy is Freedom, where they met with Francesco Rutelli and Paolo Gentiloni
Paolo Gentiloni
Paolo Gentiloni is an Italian politician, member of the Daisy—Democracy is Freedom party and currently the Italian Minister of Communications.-Biography:He is a professional journalist and has a degree in political sciences....

, both former Greens). As a result Legambiente, the largest ecologist
Ecology movement
The global ecology movement is based upon environmental protection, and is one of several new social movements that emerged at the end of the 1960s. As a values-driven social movement, it should be distinguished from the pre-existing science of ecology....

 association of Italy, has been more keen to support the Democratic Party than the Greens themselves.

Out of Parliament

On 8–9 December 2007, the Greens participated in the foundation of The Left – The Rainbow
The Left – The Rainbow
The Left – The Rainbow , frequently referred as Rainbow Left , was a left-wing federation of parties in Italy....

 with the Communist Refoundation Party
Communist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party is a communist Italian political party. Its current secretary is Paolo Ferrero....

, the Party of Italian Communists
Party of Italian Communists
The Party of Italian Communists is a communist political party in Italy. Its long-time leader is Oliviero Diliberto.-Foundation and early years:...

 and Democratic Left
Democratic Left (Italy)
Democratic Left was a democratic socialist political party in Italy.It was founded on 5 May 2007 by splinters of the Democrats of the Left centred around Fabio Mussi and Gavino Angius, who opposed the merger of the DS into the Democratic Party...

. The four parties formed a single list for the 2008 general election
Italian general election, 2008
A snap general election was held in Italy on 13 April and 14 April 2008. The election came after President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament on 6 February 2008 following the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a January 2008 Senate vote, and the unsuccessful tentative...

, obtaining just 3.1% of the vote, down from 10.2% of two years before, thus failing to enter Parliament.

In July 2008 Grazia Francescato was elected party leader, replacing Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio , is an Italian politician. He served as Minister of Environment in the second cabinet of Romano Prodi between 2006 and 2008....

, with the support of 300 delegates in the national congress of the party. Francescato, who represented the party establishment and was supported by the left-wing of Paolo Cento, defeated two other candidates representing the modernizers within the party, Marco Boato (111 votes) and Fabio Roggiolani (63 votes). Even if those who proposed an alliance with the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Italy)
The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election....

 (notably Boato, leader of the Greens in Trentino) were defeated, the party seemed to be headed to cut its ties with the far left.

For the 2009 election
European Parliament election, 2009 (Italy)
European elections to elect 72 members of the European Parliament representing Italy were held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2009, as decided by the Italian government on December 18, 2008...

 the Greens formed a joint list with the Movement for the Left
Movement for the Left
Movement for the Left was a socialist and communist political party in Italy, emerged by a split from the Communist Refoundation Party...

, the Socialist Party, Democratic Left and Unite the Left
Unite the Left
Unite the Left is the minority faction within the Party of Italian Communists , a political party in Italy. Its leaders include former minister Katia Belillo and MEP Umberto Guidoni....

 in a sort of re-edition of The Left – The Rainbow. The list was named Left and Freedom (SL) and was launched on 16 March 2009. The list received just 3.1% of the national vote and failed to return any MEPs.

After the election, it was decided to transform SL into a permanent federation and Francescato wanted the Greens to join it. Although this line seemed to be approved by the majority of the party, during a congress in October 2009 the party rejected the proposal by narrowly electing Angelo Bonelli, candidate of the liberal faction led by Boato, instead of Francescato's candidate, Loredana De Petris. After his election, which marked the end of the dominance of the internal left wing over the party, Bonelli announced that the party will pursue an independent course from SL, and will try to coalesce a new "ecologist constituent assembly" on the model of the French Europe Écologie
Europe Écologie
Europe Écologie was a French electoral coalition created for the 2009 European elections composed of The Greens and other ecologists and regionalists....

. However, Francescato, De Petris and Cento wil continue to support SL as Ecologists for Left Ecology Freedom
Ecologists (Italy)
Ecologists is a small green and eco-socialist association in Italy.It was founded in November 2009 by those members of the Federation of the Greens who wanted to continue the experience of Left and Freedom , a left-wing coalition that was abandoned by the Greens in October, and took part to the...

 and they may leave the Greens instead.

Ecologist Constituent Assembly

In September 2010 the Greens launched the Ecologist Constituent Assembly (named also Italia Ecologia, echoing the French Europe Écologie). In Bonelli's view the new political force would have taken inspiration both from the French Verts
The Greens
The Greens is the name of several different green parties:* Australian Greens, also known as The Greens* The Greens – The Green Alternative, Austria* The Greens * The Greens * The Greens * The Greens...

and the German Grünen
Alliance '90/The Greens
Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...

and would have be open to the contribution of movements and associations, notably including Beppe Grillo
Beppe Grillo
Giuseppe Piero Grillo, better known as Beppe Grillo , is an Italian activist, blogger, comedian, actor and politician, who also works in theatres and television.-Biography:Grillo was born in Genoa, Liguria....

's Five Star Movement.
Other than the Greens, participants of the new political force included, among others, Massimo Scalia (a former leading Green), Bruno Mellano (president of the Italian Radicals
Italian Radicals
Italian Radicals is an Italian political party which describes itself as a liberale, liberista e libertario political movement .It was...

), movie maker Mario Monicelli
Mario Monicelli
Mario Monicelli was an Italian director and screenwriter and one of the masters of the Commedia all'Italiana , three times nominated for Oscar.-Biography:...

, writer Dacia Maraini
Dacia Maraini
Dacia Maraini is an Italian writer. She is the daughter of Sicilian Princess Topazia Alliata di Salaparuta, an artist and art dealer, and of Fosco Maraini, a Florentine ethnologist and mountaineer of mixed Ticinese, English and Polish background who wrote in particular on Tibet and Japan...

, geologist Mario Tozzi and comedian Giobbe Covatta.

Popular support

In their history the Greens were never able to reach the electoral success of many green parties all around Europe. They have a stable share of vote around 2% and experienced a slight decline in the last decade. Their characterization as party of the far left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...

 did not help them in Northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...

, where they had their best results at the beginning (for instance 7.1% in the 1990 Venetian regional election
Venetian regional election, 1990
The Venetian regional election of 1990 took place on 6 May 1990.Christian Democracy was by far the largest party, but it was four seats short of an outright majority in the Regional Council...

).

The Greens are stronger in cities and urban areas (Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, etc.), in mountain regions, such as Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Aosta Valley, and in some Southern regions, such as Basilicata
Basilicata
Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...

 and Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

.

Leadership

  • President: Franco Corleone (1993–1997), Massimo Scalia (1997–1999), Grazia Francescato (1999–2001), Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
    Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
    Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio , is an Italian politician. He served as Minister of Environment in the second cabinet of Romano Prodi between 2006 and 2008....

     (2001–2008), Angelo Bonelli (2009–...)
  • Spokesperson: Gianni Mattioli (1991–1993), Carlo Ripa di Meana (1993–1996), Luigi Manconi (1996–1999), Grazia Francescato (2008–2009)
  • Coordinator: Angelo Bonelli (2001–2004), Paolo Cento (2004–2006), Massimo Fundarò (2006–2009)
  • Treausurer: Lino De Benetti (1991–1993), Marco Lion (1993–2009)

  • Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies
    Italian Chamber of Deputies
    The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...

    : Gianni Mattioli (1987–1989), Laura Cima (1989–1991), Massimo Scalia (1991–1992), Francesco Rutelli (1992–1993), Gianni Mattioli (1993–1994, deputy-leader of the PDS
    Democratic Party of the Left
    The Democratic Party of the Left was a post-communist, democratic socialist political party in Italy.-History:...

     group in 1994–1996), Anna Maria Procacci (1996–2001), Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
    Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
    Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio , is an Italian politician. He served as Minister of Environment in the second cabinet of Romano Prodi between 2006 and 2008....

     (2001–2006), Angelo Bonelli (2006–2008)
  • Party Leader in the Senate
    Italian Senate
    The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...

    : Marco Boato (1987–1992), Carla Rocchi (1992–1994), Edo Ronchi (1994–1996), Maurizio Pieroni (1996–2001), Stefano Boco (2001–2006), Natale Ripamonti (deputy-leader of the PdCI
    Party of Italian Communists
    The Party of Italian Communists is a communist political party in Italy. Its long-time leader is Oliviero Diliberto.-Foundation and early years:...

    -Green group, 2006–2008)
  • Party Leader in the European Parliament
    European Parliament
    The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

    : Alexander Langer
    Alexander Langer
    Alexander Langer was a journalist, peace activist, politician, translator, and teacher.Born on February 22, 1946 in Sterzing, South Tyrol, a province of Italy inhabited by a German-speaking population, he became involved early on in local political issues, which at the time centered on the...

     (1989–1994), Gianni Tamino (1994–1999), Giorgio Celli
    Giorgio Celli
    Giorgio Celli was an Italian entomologist, ecologist, professor, writer, and politician.-Early life:Celli was born in Verona. After receiving his degree in agronomical sciences in 1959, Celli taught at the University of Bologna...

     (1999–2004), Monica Frassoni
    Monica Frassoni
    Monica Frassoni is an Italian politician and was a Member of the European Parliament for the North West of Italy until 2009. She is a member of the Italian Green Party, part of the European Greens. Frassoni was co-chair, together with Daniel Cohn-Bendit, of the European Greens–European Free...

    (2004–2009)

External links

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